Barflies.net 4.0 - More than Just Music - Life, the World, and ...

January 2009

10 years ago today, Alex West, Ben Yau, and I got together at my brother's house in Huntington Beach with several computers and a bunch of scary snacks that Ben brought and we coded & launched Barflies.net to build on the Barflies mailing list that I had been running for the previous year and the SocialD message board that Alex had been running for the 4 years previous.

In the normal way of things, I should have thrown a big party tonight to celebrate 10 BIG YEARS on the internet. I have spent the last two months trying to find where all the early contributors of the Barflies.net have gotten themselves off to (Hey Amber & Erik Jansen, where are you? Email me!), so that Julie Wanda and I could throw a good thank you party and Hey, We are Still Going Strong party.

In typical, Wanda and Jen fashion, we are running fashionably late. Expect a party announcement soon.

Hancock - Staring Will Smith and Charlize Theron
Hancock is about a everyday superhero named Hancock who needs to clean up his image just a bit.
Very Surprised. I was entertained. Although the story line between the characters of Will and Charlize was a bit annoying, I felt they could have developed that better but that's what sequels as well as prequels, are for, right?
I give it 3 Tinks!

Charlie Bartlett - Staring Anton Yelchin as Charlie Bartlett, Robert Downing Jr and Kat Dennings
Charlie Bartlett is about a teenager trying to find himself and it get's him into trouble. What else is new.
It was a good movie. It has Kat Dennings from Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (which I loved) who I think is a good up and coming actress but I see why she was picked for Nick and Norah, pretty much the same character.
I give it 2 Tinks!

Vicki Christina Barcelona Starring Javier Bardem (my love) and a slew of other people.
Well, it has Javier Bardem in it . . . O.K. I will get serious . . . The movie is about relationships and finding love, falling out of love and how love makes you CRAZY!
Basically I want to go to Spain, the movie makes you fall in love with Spain. So I'm going to Spain. I actually thought it was a good movie.
I give it 4 Tinks! one extra for Javier Bardem! Can you tell I love Javier Bardem? Just wondering.

The Duchess starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes
The Duchess is about the Duchess of Devonshire in the 1700's England. She was a young woman married in hopes that she would have Duke of Devonshire's son/hier. She was the talk of society in regards her fashions, debt and gossip. The movie was about her but it was more about how much of an a**hole her husband was to her.
I give it 4 Tinks!

Burn After Reading Starring Frances McDormand and George Clooney
The movie is about how very different lives collide and how the world is such a small place. I think it was a very standard Cohen Brother's film.
I give it 3 Tinks!

Fool's Gold Starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson
Another Romantic comedy from Matthew and McConaughey and Kate Hudson. Oh boy do they find themselves in trouble this time. Will they find the treasure and get back together. You will have to watch and find out. Predictable.
I give it 3 Tinks! (for the supporting cast)

1. Vicki P. If you were there at the bar by the waterfall Sunday night after the awards party. YOU WILL KNOW WHY. . .
2. Funny that we were a bit upset when we had to bowl the second day. We wanted to go shopping.
3. The Gazebo bar at the Paris. Love that bar.
4. Walking over to the Bellagio to watch the water show. Delight!
5. Not thrilled with the El Primero (what ever it was called) bar for the awards party. I still smell like smoke.
6. Lots of cute boys this year!
7. That we initially came in 17th place for the b league. NONE of us practiced this year. That's pretty good. We ended at 40 something place.
8. Bowling next to the Windy City Bowlers. Eight is great!

Startin' 09' out with something new to Barflies . . . well, not new but it's been awhile. . . introducing Tink's Movie Reviews. I watch a lot movies.

Step-Brothers Starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.
I find these guys hilarious. They make me laugh in everything they do. Have you seen the stuff on Funny or Die? FUNNY! I know there are some folks that are not particularly happy with their brand of HUMOR, but it's funny stuff.
Anyway, the movie is about these two people (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins, who just was nominated for a Oscar for The Visitor, amazing performance and movie. Well Deserved!!!) who get married the second time around and they both happen to have 40 year old sons who still live at home. With this union, they all move in together and the mad cap fun begins. Both have just not grown up and with circumstances they are made to grow up. It's about finding your niche and just being yourself. The stand out performance for me is the brother of Will Ferrell character played by Adam Scott. He plays the best a**hole ever!
I give it 3 Tinks!

Run Fat Boy Fun Starring Simon Pegg (from Hot Fuzz) and Thandie Newton
A sweet movie about getting the girl you love back. You made some mistakes but when you realize you still love her, you will go at any lengths to get her back. I liked the movie. The little boy is cute. The supporting cast is what makes the movie, the Indian landlord and the best friend. The motto is about self confidence and if you want to make your dreams come true, go for it.
I give it 4 Tinks!

The Ringer Starring Johnny Knoxville and Katherine Heigl
When I started watching the movie and subsequently fell asleep, I thought, I just wasted a few minutes of my life. HORRIBLE. But I gave it a second chance, and I thought it was one of the sweetest movie ever. It's not the best movie in the world by no means but still it's got heart. It's about this guy, who gets in a bit of trouble and somehow a scheme is made up to throw the Special Olympics. It's a bit far fetched. At first, you think how rude they are making fun of people of special needs but most of the cast were special needs people. Actually, I happen to know one of the cast members. Really what it comes down to is accepting people for who they are. Even, if they have challenges, they get to make their dreams come true, too. They just want some respect too!
I give it 2 Tinks!

P.S. I Love You Starring Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank
This movie made me cry like a baby. And it has Gerard Butler in it. Enough Said.
I give it 3 Tinks! (just for Gerard Butler and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, too) O.K. I will stop gushing.
Did I tell you it has Gerard Butler in it. Just checking . . .

Speaking of waiting... Yes, the official Barflies.net photo essay will be coming to you this week once I decompress from the weekend and get a few work/client tasks out of the way. I took a couple of hundred photos over the last four days and am excited to share a reasonable portion thereof.

In the meantime, on the eve of our 10th anniversary (Jan 31, 2009) here at Barflies.net, I give you all the past Barflies.net Punk Rock Bowling photo essays:

2001 - compliments of the Internet Wayback Machine, as somehow I deleted this one off the server, but I have it on a hard drive. I promise to reinstate it.2002200320042005
2006 - I was in graduate school at TCD this year, but Brian kindly gave a Top Ten list.20072008 - Ok, not sure what glue I was high on last year at this time, but Mark DiSalvo was right to bust my chops this weekend about the lack of 2008 photo essay... I can't find it... Ooops. The link to is to my moblogged Flickr Photo Set.

Remember the scene in "Borat" where he tries to kidnap Pamela Anderson? That was shot there, but that's not enough to grant it landmark status.

When the Tower Records chain went down a couple of years ago, I wrote some gushy, teary-eyed tribute and mourned it like the end of an era. I liked Tower. There was something familiar and welcoming about their stores. Not so here. The Virgin Megastore was always cold and dark, with cement floors and a bunch of chrome all over the place. They were overpriced too. On at least one occasion I found something I wanted at Virgin, balked at the price, and then walked over to Borders and bought it for five bucks less.

So the Orange Megastore was just another going out of business sale. Did I hover over the scene of the crime to pick the bones clean anyway? Guilty, but due to a combination of economics and apathy, I didn't go hog-wild this time around.
When the sale was new and the discounts were minimal, I picked up a couple of CD's

The Replacements - Sorry Ma Forgot to Take Out The Trash. The latest reissue all digitally remastered, revised, revisioned, and re-kanoodled with bonus tracks and all that other stuff. I do say that it holds up pretty well. There were other Replacements album re-releases that I intended to pick up when the discount got bigger, but too many other people had the same thought.

Little Walter - Chess Records compilation. I like the cover photograph that shows the scars on his face and the stitches in his forehead. He was the undisputed king of the electric harmonica. Aspiring harmonicats are still afraid to imitate him.

1977-The Spirit of Punk Compilation- About four zillion punk rock classics on one 2-disc set. It was really cheap too. This can't possibly be legal. When is a bootleg not a bootleg? When you slap an "import" label on it.
A couple of weeks later, the prices went down to 60% off so I got a few more.

Iggy Pop - Nude and Rude. This is another greatest non-hits compilation, but the first one spanning from the 60's to the 90's. Yeah, I have most of the records but I was really excited to see something I recognized in the racks.

Brian Setzer - Collection 81-88. A couple of Stray Cats b-sides and unreleased oddball stuff padded with songs from his flop solo albums of the 80's. This was obviously meant to cash in after the Brian Setzer Orchestra got big. I bet those suits at the record company never suspected that anyone would actually like this as much as I do. "The Knife Feels Like Justice" means just as much today as it did in 1985 or so. In other words, I still can't figure out what the hell it means. That just makes me like it more.

Ray Charles - The Essential something or other. Deceptive packaging covers up a great collection of pre-Atlantic, pre-fame recordings. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Then I got a couple from the red-tag 3 dollar budget bin

Charlie Haden - The Haden Family Album. I've heard of this guy. He's a jazz bassist who just released an album of country/bluegrass songs. I like it. Elvis Costello and Jack Black sing on it, but not together. I looked at the credits while listening to one of the songs, found out that it was Bruce Hornsby singing, and I still liked it.

Alice Cooper - Along Came a Spider. Again, I was excited to see an artist I recognized. I tried to listen to this concept album about a serial killer or vampire or something, but I didn't really get it. I'm giving it to a friend who is a big time Alice Cooper fan from way back. Happy Belated Christmas, Frenchie.

So there were no fantastic deals to be had, but I did end up with something really cool.
Check it out. I thought this six-shelved metal rack was a bargain at only twenty-five clams. It doesn't look like much sitting here in my garage, but once I had at it with some shop rags and disinfectant, its true beauty emerged from under years of smug hipness.

Here it is, fully loaded with over 800 CD's, a treasured souvenir with very little historical and emotional significance. The knife doesn't always feel like justice, but sometimes the fork feels like karma and the melon baller smells like anarchy.

An ear worm is a pernicious song / melody / chorus that wiggles into your brain via your ears and stays all the while niggling at your brain and causing you to wake up singing it or worse... The worse is having the ear worm song stuck for days on end.

The best way to get rid of an ear worm is not to ignore or attempt to replace it with a better or more acceptable song, but instead to infect others around you. By some odd law of the universe that science has not yet documented, if you pass on your ear worm to at least 3 or 5 other humans, then it mercifully leaves your brain.

Back in college if the most pernicious of all ear worms infected us, we would start singing it in the cafeteria line. Evil but true. By the time you got your food and checked out, the ear worm would be gone, all the while 5 others behind you in line were shooting you eye daggers and singing along under their breathes.

By this same principal, my college roommate and I once got a large part of the audience at the Troubador, between bands, singing the Worst Ear Worm of All Time. This was a great accomplishment for the late 1980s.

Thankfully, Blip.fm has come up with a great antidote for ear worms. Blip.fm lets you post the song you are thinking of and then write a small note to go along with it, think Twitter plus a song database. Thus, when you think of a song, rather than letting your mind chew on it for hours and tormenting you, you can log into Blip.fm, and post the song and share it not just with your friends but with various other lovely folk on Blip.fm.

Today, when I heard a 70s ear worm gem on the radio and was too appalled to change the channel, as the song started to burrow into my brain, I went home, turned on the computer, when to Blip.fm and blipped it - 1975's Hot Chocolate's "I believe in Miracles". And I wrote:

This song, while an oldie, is a TERRIBLE HORRIBLE Ear Worm. I heard it on the radio today, now I must infect you...

And then Blip.fm set me free. So, I decided to test my karma and post the Worst Ear Worm of All Time to Blip.fm, yes - the ear worm that infected the cafeteria line at Pitzer College, the ear worm that infected a metal show at the Troubadour... Yes... The Green Acres Theme Song... I dare you to listen to it:

But this, if you are an American who watched too many re-runs as a kid, is the ALL TIME MOST infectious Ear Worm...

So as I'm going through photos for my 08 music redux, I came upon the best pics ever.
It's a "had to be there" moment but it was the funniest and one of the best moments at Punk Rock Bowling 08. Basically, Brian proposed "marriage" to Wanda. Don't worry it was just pretend but very funny.